SU: The World's Leading Institution in Post-Secondary Education
by Expandarian
Summary: I guess that's part of what really drew me to the dark haired Uchiha. His experiences were most undoubtedly the opposite of mine. He was part of a whole new, unexplored world and I was just so anxious to get away from small town Konoha and join the big boys in the sandbox. Suna was a whole new ballgame and I wasn't yet familiar with the rules.
1. Writer's Block

**Author's Note:** Here's a quick 2-3 chapter fic for the January Challenge. It'll be surrounding the prospects of Knapp's Stair Step Model and relational dialects. Don't worry if you don't know what that means, I'll make it clear in the fic. :o)

Enjoy!

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Naruto rushed down the hallway carrying his backpack on one shoulder. He reached a hand out and grabbed his best friend's shoulder as they continued walking, "Hey man, what're you doing for Kakashi Sensei's final?"

Kiba looked up at his bright, blue-eyed friend and smiled, "You should know that already. I'm writing about getting Akamaru and how much responsibility that took", he said, adding physical quotation marks around the word responsibility.

Naruto kept walking, but a frown began engulfing his bright smile with each stride. "Well, what should I do?"

Kiba looked up at Naruto. Rolling his eyes he abruptly stopped. "Are you kidding me?"

Naruto stopped just in front of him. "What?", he asked, unaware of what it was his best friend thought was so obvious.

Kiba smiled, "Dude... write about Sasuke."

Naruto stopped, staring at the large paw print on the pack of Kiba's denim jacket as he walked away. _Can I write about him?,_ he asked himself, still unsure of what was to come...

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It was dark by the time he began making his way home. It wasn't that Naruto was afraid of the dark, he just knew what could be lurking there.

He quickly made his way to the door and unlocked the deadbolt, scurrying into his apartment as fast as he could. In his attempt to shut the door he caught his jacket.

"Damn it!", he grabbed the pocket and yanked, leaving a piece of it still caught in the door. He dropped his backpack on the floor and made his way to the fridge, looking for a nice cold drink to make him pass out.

He rummaged through the fridge, but after finding nothing useful for his motives, decided to settle down and begin his final essay.

He grabbed some pieces of lined paper and began scratching, _I'll always remember my first days here at SU._


	2. Pre-Initiation

I'll always remember my first days here at SU. When I first walked into the student hall during the open house and saw Uchiha Sasuke, son of Uchiha Fugaku, owner of the great Uchiha Corporation, I knew that my life was going to change forever. I mean, sure, I never thought that it would change the way that it did, but I could feel it in my gut. I knew there was something coming.

I got really excited when I saw Umino Sensei walking my way. He had given me my interview and since then I have grown quite fond of him. I guess that's a good thing; he is director of the Sociology department, so I'll be seeing him around a lot. I usually hated going to these Freshmen Orientations, but Tsunade-sama wanted me to have an idea of what a real education is.

I never really understood any of her philosophical rants, but somehow they always seemed to make things better, no matter what was going wrong. In my senior year at Konoha High, she made me spend hours researching and studying for exams so that I could get into a good school. She promised me that my grades were a payoff of all my hard work, but I still think she tipped off my teachers.

She was always so concerned with my well-being that she even began to neglect herself. Hopefully, now that I'm away for a while, she'll be able to focus on the things she wants to do again. _I really hope this year isn't going to be another game of cat chases unwilling, victimized mouse and tortures him into tedious busy-work._

I still think that's all High School was ever good for. Just something for us to do to stay out of trouble before they started getting serious about education. I swear I learned more about the Bible in my English classes than actual academic content. I guess that's the drawbacks of public school – none of the teachers actually gave a shit and you were stuck with whatever bogus attitude they wanted to give you.

I guess that's part of what really drew me to the dark haired Uchiha. His experiences were most undoubtedly the opposite of mine. He was part of a whole new, unexplored world and I was just so anxious to get away from small town Konoha and join the big boys in the sandbox. Suna was a whole new ballgame and I wasn't yet familiar with the rules.

One of the biggest things that really drew me to Sunagakure University was the prospect of a roommate. Baa-chan never let me go to sleep-overs and I viewed it as the perfect experience to perfect my socializing skills and try to reduce the awkward meter. It'd been at full capacity for as long as I could remember; so long that my loser meter was beginning to be affected. I never really was a "cool" kid, but Sasuke – he was a different story.

Sasuke'd grown up his entire life being waited on hand and foot, only having to worry about the wrath of his father. While I'd never understand what it was like to have real father, I always viewed Namikaze Minato in a fatherly light and Baa-chan was the closest I'd ever come to having a real mother. Her lover, Jiraya Sanin, has always been a parental figure to me too – I guess I've had a few of those, but it's still not even close to the feeling of having an overbearing father breathing down your neck since before you were born. I'll never have the feeling of a real father but I had my whole village counting on me. I vowed that I would become great one day, and they were all impatient to see me fail.

Sasuke and I had very different pressures, but still pressures to succeed; to be the best. It drew us together, like moths to a flame you could say. Every time I looked over in his direction his deep black eyes were staring at me, as if to say "I dare you" – to do what, I wasn't yet sure, but as flattering as it was, I was beginning to think he hated me with that plastered Uchiha glare he always shot at me. It didn't really help that his eyes were black. I'm still not sure how that's genetically possible but they were definitely not brown.

I made small talk with several other guests that night (most of which were Tsunade-baa's business partners), occasionally glancing back over at Mr. Uchiha. The chandeliers hanging from the ceiling emitted a soft glow from his face, accenting his softer, more feminine features. I definitely was not used to thinking of Uchiha Sasuke as feminine (not with his reputation), and I would never speak that thought, but as long as it remained a personal observation, I gauged it to be ok.

It wasn't until that night that I realized how attractive he really was. I'd heard girls talk before, but his presence, that's on a whole nother level. It was like I had a magnet in my stomach pulling me towards him, but everything in my consciousness told me to stay away. It's a feeling you can't understand until you feel it. I hope you can experience that one day, Kakashi Sensei.

After the Orientation I went out to dinner with Baa-chan, it wasn't much of a choice, but it was nice to spend a little more time with her before she headed back to Konoha. Before I went to bed that night I thought of that relentless glare. I'm still not sure what he really meant by it, but it made my blood boil – and I like that.

… and thus began the pre-initiating stage of our relationship. All I wanted from that moment on was to see those deep black eyes staring at me and only me, saying only my name over and over again. It didn't matter how many times I tried to imagine what he sounded like – I never imagined it to be as angelic as it truly was.

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**Author's Note:** I had previously planned for this to be a 2-3, maybe 4 chapter fic, but it looks like I may be doing a chapter for each step of the model. If you guys don't know what the model looks like, feel free to google it, otherwise, it will be explained in the chapters I didn't go into too much depth as far as what "pre-initiation" meant, simply because I didn't want to give away the future chapters. As soon as I get chapter 4 out, you'll understand. I may also be adding filler chapters inbetween the writing, since nobody just sits down and writes a 12-or-so page essay in one sitting. It takes a while to think about it and that's exactly how Naruto feels.

Muahahaha I love making him feel all confused inside. :o)


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